Imaging is employed in an ever increasing range of applications. Some of these applications are time sensitive. For example, machine vision may require knowledge of exactly when a certain event occurred. Signal processing occurring after exposure of an image sensor to generate of an output image, or other image-based output data, is associated with some amount of processing time, which may be in the range of, for example, microseconds, milliseconds, or a fraction of a second. The processing time depends on the type of processing to be performed and the type of circuitry employed to perform the processing. For a given imaging system, the processing time may vary depending on the mode of operation. For example, a change in exposure time or resolution may affect the processing time.
Some imaging systems utilize two or more cameras to capture two or more respective image streams, which are stitched together to form a single composite image stream. Such imaging systems may be implemented in surveillance or automotive applications to provide an observer, e.g., a driver, with a single image stream of a larger field of view than what can be achieved with a single camera. Generation of the composite image stream requires communicating the individual image streams to a common processing system that stitches together the individual image streams. The composite image stream is subject to data path delays between the individual image sensors and the common processing system, and artifacts may occur wherein different spatial portions of the composite image stream are out of sync with each other.